After a 10 year absence from the hobby it is time to build a new boat. I am currently running a Washington. It has been a good boat, but I miss sidemounts. There has been a number of German High seas fleet build in our club, and there is very little above waterline target…. I wanted to stay Allied, but in my opinion the best hulls for the hobby are all Axis. German ships sit significantly lower in the water than their British count points. VDT vs Invincible. Baden vs Queen Elizibeth. There are no 3 shaft Allied boats….. No viable American Dreadnoughts due to single rudder penalty. There were only (2) hulls that were of interest to me, Queen Elizabeth(QE) and Iron Duke(ID). Both fall short of Baden and Konig due to the 3 shaft advantage, but at least the ID had casement protection I was about to through in the towel and build Axis. I was poking around looking at the various QE configurations when I came across the HMS Barham. Well maybe I was led there… She was number 4 in order for getting her upgrades, and never got the last one that removed all the casements. What this means to us is that the Barham has a bulge that requires (2) stringers AND a casement deck. The casements also give an advantage to down angle for the sidemounts. I HAVE FOUND MY SHIP. Plans were ordered from Porfile Morskie on 8/19/14 Hull ordered from Ralph Coles 8/25/14. He says this is the thickes hull he has made Fiberglass sheeting & misc parts ordered from McMaster-Carr 9/2/14 Impatiently waiting for parts to start arriving. I want to start by thanking Tugboat for posting his Malaya build http://www.rcnavalcombat.com/Forum/...fault.aspx And VVaholic for posting his QE – Frankenship build http://www.rcnavalcombat.com/Forum/...fault.aspx I will be referencing both builds as I work my way through this. Keith
Hey Keith, I have some video of the Barham's stringers and casement layout that might help. If I get the video processed and posted, could you use it?
Thanks Greg, I would not go in and "fix" a boat that did not follow the new rules. Since this is a new build I want to follow the build rules. Someday I would like to attend a Nats (may never happen), so I want to build to the rules. Keith
I dont think local rules affect the Barham in any way, but if a boat meets IRCWCC rules then it is good to go locally. We just don't care about a few hits way up high that wont make a ship sink, so why make someone patch them.
The biggest issue with the Barham is that the bulge on the Q.E. hull requires two stringers. The Barham also get casement decks in two locations. This will require me to only get 1/8” for my weather deck over much of the ship. I may choose to use termite armor to cover the casement openings, but I will build it to easily make legal if I want/need to.
The IRCWCC casement rules are the same as the MWCI casement rules. If the ship is legal for one rule set, then it will be legal for the other. With much of the casement area set in more than 1/2" from the edge of the casement deck and thus is considered hard area, there isn't much casement left that requires the 1/8" weather deck. Without having the hull sitting here at work to look at, I would guess it is around 4" total divided up into three sections on each side between the outermost casements on the forward casement deck. The stern weather deck gets 1/4" with about a 1.3" hard area (1/2" rule again). The armor belt stringer runs directly into the stern casement deck, thus freeing up 1/8" for the stern weather deck. I really need to get that Barham casement video processed and posted. Will try to get on that tonight.
I should get the hull today. The plans could still be some time. (I.m trying to be patient) I was hoping the casement was over 1/2" from the edge, but was waiting to measure. Looking forward to the video. Keith
I have the Hull I had planned to spread out expensis, but since I don't have Barham plans, the next place to move forward is the drive system. I will be placing an order for some gearboxes.
Ahoy! Finally finished processing the video and got it posted. Quality is so so, but it should do a fairly good job showing how I did the casements and stringers on a Barham to meet IRCWCC/MWCI casement rules. I recommend watching it in HD. www.youtube.com/watch Note that when the video was recorded, the subdeck still needed thinning in a few places. The video has those spots marked for 1/8".
